Mountain Quest keychain multitool (Lynn's $5 MT Challenge)

[Lynn LeFey]

This review is for 'Lynn's $5 MT Challenge', where I was asked to find the best tool I could that cost $5, all in, including tax and shipping. Here's a link to the main thread.
https://forum.multitool.org/index.php/topic,75094.0.html

Today, I'm reviewing the 'Mountain Quest' keychain size multitool. If it has a more specific name, 2 hours of searching on the internet didn't find it. I think I'll call it the MQMT to save typing throughout.

The 'Mountain Quest' brand is put out by Kutmaster, but as I said, I could find nothing on this specific tool. There is a keychain size tool with a similar plier head called the 'Stanley Pocketech'. That tool seems to be available mostly through advertising companies as an item that can be branded with a company logo, presumably to be given away at trade shows and the like. This would also fit with the origin of this tool, as it's branded with the 'Helena' company logo on the reverse side.

Here's a look at the MQMT...


I don't know what it looks like to you, but to me, after my last review of a very bad copy of the PST, this thing looks like a masterpiece.

Before I actually start reviewing it, let me say that I am somewhat positively predisposed to this thing, since it is a near cousin to the keychain tool I have that was marketed as the Sheffield 12010 among many other names.

The MQMT seems to be a solidly built tool, with threaded bolt construction like the Leatherman Micra. It weighs 1.6oz (46g).

Here it is with the Leatherman Micra, SOG Crosscut, and Victorinox Rambler as a reference to size.


Due to its small size, my expectations of capability are likewise scaled down. I wouldn't try to pry open a crusty paint can with this, for instance, and once snapped the phillips driver on a Micra trying to remove a 3" long wood screw from a wooden bench, so... managing expectations here.

Stay tuned for Blade Testing, which will be up soon.

[Lynn LeFey]

I forgot to mention this in the initial post. This tool was purchased use from a pawn shop for $4.

On with blade testing.

As I just said, I got this thing used, so I don't know what the blade was like new. I can only report what it's like as I received it. It was very raggedly paper-cutting sharp.



It didn't take much effort to bring it up to receipt-paper cutting sharp. I didn't bother with my usual kitchen knife sharpener, and skipped right to ceramic rods. 40 passes on each side of the blade, and it cut fine. You can see the test cuts above the blade.


I then took the tool against some corrugated cardboard. 16 passes through the material.


And then back to the receipt paper. There was a very slight hesitation to cut on one portion of the blade, but it otherwise still cut the receipt paper well.

Doing any large amount of cutting of something as heavy of corrugated cardboard is not something I'd really expect to be in the job description of a keychain sized tool. But it was up to the task, and surprisingly comfortable in the hand while doing it.

Retention of the blade is mostly from the stiffness of the tool clumping. For a blade on a tool this size, I was fine with it, but it might limit its usefulness for thrusting cuts.

Blade: Strong PASS (at least for light day-to-day tasks)

[Lynn LeFey]

Screw drivers...

The first I tested was the small (or 'fine'?) screwdriver at the tip of the cap lifter. This thing is ground beyond 'screwdriver' and almost approaching 'chisel'. It slotted cleanly into the screw of my eyeglasses, and worked fine.



 I suspect it would make a good awl as well, as sharp as it is. However, because of the fineness of that blade tip, I don't imagine it would handle ANY torque without deforming. But it did it's intended task well.

Next up, the full-size flathead. I tested it in the faceplate of a lightswitch. It is well formed, slotted cleanly, and of course, turned fine. So I went bigger, and tried it in the screw of a door hinge. And... it worked in that as well. I wouldn't go for a much harder task, because there was some flexing through the frame on heavy torque, but no permanent deformation. This thing is performing way over expectations with this. I would say though, it is a bit limited due to being relatively short.


The tool also has a flat phillips/medium flathead. I tested it against screws in my kitchen cabinets. It handled the light-duty screws holding the handle to the door (left side in picture), and the hinge to the door. Then I tested it against the screw holding the hinge into the hardwood frame, and... it did the task. As with the large flathead, it performed better than I expected it to. And ALSO like the large flathead, there was some flex in the frame of the tool that made me feel like I was approaching the limits of the tool's capability. Still, passed them all. And a third thing like the large flathead, the tool is relatively short, so might have limited reach.


The last driver on this thing is a small phillips. It slotted cleanly into the small screw on the bottom of my kitchen scale (and several other small electronic gadgets I checked). Again, there's some limited reach, but it SHOULD reach deep enough into most electronics to do its job. There's not really going to be any issues with overtorque at this scale.


This combination of drivers handles a LOT. This is actually a pretty amazing combination of drivers, both flat and phillips, and they handled more than I expected they would.

Drivers: BIG WIN (at least for light and slightly moderate needs)

[WWW]

I'm quite happy and pleased to see a, basically no name brand, cheap as dirt multi perform so well! Looking forward for the scissor testing!!!

[Lynn LeFey]

And I just got around to the scissors testing.

For those who've never read any of my stuff, I made a rating system for multitool scissors. Here's the thread.
https://forum.multitool.o...ex.php/topic,36798.0.html

Here's a summary of the scale:"The materials tested were paper, corrugated cardboard, T-shirt, The seam portion of old khakis (4 layers thick), suede leather, PETE plastic bottle (as a stand-in for blister packaging), Cardboard box (non-corrugated), heavy gauge screw-on plastic lid (from a container of ‘country time lemonade’, about 1mm thick), and 550 paracord. I scored these in one of 4 caregories: Fail (-1), Barely Adequate (+0), Pass (+1), Pass with distinction (+2)"

How did these fare?
Pass with distinction: Paper +2
Pass: T-Shirt, PETE plastic, non-corrugated cardboard +3
Barely Adequate: Corrugated cardboard, khaki, Suede, 550 +0
Fail: Heavy plastic -2

Total score: +4. Pretty good for a cheap tool. But, to be honest, I could have just as easily failed them on Khaki and 550, because they were REALLY marginally capable of this task. So they might just as easily been called +2 as +4. The 'pass with distinction' on the paper is because I could get them to do long running push cuts.

They're up to day-to-day cutting of paper, thin plastic, thin cardboard, price tag connectors, that sort of thing, and not much else. Pretty acceptable for small size scissors, and particularly on a no-name tool.

Day to day scissor use: PASS

[Lynn LeFey]

A couple more quick notes on the cap lifter/fine flathead.

It worked well as an awl to punch through two layers of denim.



And it worked well as a cap lifter, popping the cap on one pull without cutting through the material of the edge of the cap.


Cap Lifter: Pass
Improvised Awl: Pass

[Lynn LeFey]

Pliers

Well... it couldn't ALL be awesome, could it? For being a plier based tool, this thing has some really anemic pliers, in my opinion. To begin, there are no wire cutters. Second, the very blunt nose doesn't work great for creating very small loops in wire. The area on the jaws for grabbing fine objects is fairly small, but the dentitions seem pretty well ground, and did grab the hard metal of a paperclip firmly without marring.

Here's my first test, multiple sharp bends in a paperclip, and a look at the dentitions in the jaws.


The nose of the pliers are not very precise, as far as the thickness of each jaw. This didn't eally affect performance in the least, just speaks to fit and finish. The jaws are also very slightly misalligned, with the jaw on the right in the picture being fractionally higher than the one on the left. And again, it didn't really affect performance.


Finally, because of the design of the handles, the plier head doesn't sit very flush on flat surfaces. In the pic below that there is a few milimeter gap between the plier head and the table. This might limit the pliers' ability to grab flush bolts.


I'm sorry to say I don't have any small bolts to test the pliers' abilities on. On a guess, I'd say they could work for something VERY light duty.

So, not outstanding, but functional for gripping fine objects with a lot of force.

One last thought, the ergonomics of these, with the metal edges of the tool's handles diggin into your hand, is not the most comfortable thing, but that's standard for the 'Leatherman PST' style tools, big OR small.

Light duty pliers: Pass

[Lynn LeFey]

Not many more functions left to go.

The nail file.

It's there, and it works. It's not terribly aggressive. If you had major nail damage, you'd have a long job in front of you fixing it with this tool. Maybe I should test the scissors for nail trimming.

Actually, hang on... (Lynn goes off to test)

Yep. The scissors work for trimming nails, then finish with the file.

Here's a look.


And I wanted to point a small, but telling detail on this thing. The nail cleaning tool on the tip of the file has been tapered toward the point, to better get in under nails.


The MQMT as a nail maintenance tool: Pass

The only tool remaining is a v-notch tool that I have to assume is a fish hook remover. I don't have a fish, or fish hook. So, it goes untested.

[Lynn LeFey]

A few thoughts on fit and finish, and ergonomics, and then I'll wrap up here.

This thing opens and closes 'wonky'. Unless I 'pose' it, it looks bad. That does nothing to the function, just an observation.


The tools clump hard, and extraction is VERY stiff on this tool. The only good side is that it's the only thing keeping it from coming open if it were in your pocket.

Repeated, rapid changing of tools, because of that stiffness, kind of hurt my hands after a while. This doesn't REALLY seem like a real world problem likely to be encountered.

I get the general feeling like someone cared about FUNCTION on this tool and had no care at all for appearance or comfort. This thing has the level of usefulness about like the Micra, Crosscut, or similar small keychain tool. It just doesn't look as good doing it.

And I'm fine with that. I paid $5 for this. I REALLY like this tool at that price. It's super-easy to carry, and packs just a TON of ACTUAL function in that tiny package.

TOTALLY worth $5

I'm not sure if it's winning vs. the Walmart SAK-knockpoff, but it's in the running for sure.

[ReamerPunch]

I like this one. It's like a baby Rebar. Or Micra with pliers. Seeing how it performed, I can see this winning the competition. But then again, it's not over. 

[Lynn LeFey]

A tool very much like this was selling in 2012 at K-Mart for $5.  Covered in this thread 'Old mini-PST clone?'
https://forum.multitool.org/index.php/topic,38583.0.html

Somewhat different tool loadout, but very similar. I have the Sheffield branded version I mentioned in earlier posts, and I REALLY like it. I'd gladly drop $5 for one of them new. Or, really, used. I actually am watching RIGHT NOW, a batch of those tools on ebay, likely to sell 5 of them for under $25. I thought they were about one of the best $5 tools I've seen.

So, like I said in my first post, I went into this review positively biased toward this tool, but I'm glad to see it met my expectations.

But... you know what? We have a SERIOUS contender to knock this tool off the throne. It's coming up next in the challenge.

[ReamerPunch]

But... you know what? We have a SERIOUS contender to knock this tool off the throne. It's coming up next in the challenge.

Sounds promising.